L.A. County District Attorney Steve Cooley's office finally got wise to the recidivist problem on Skid Row: He announced he'll start dinging convicted Skid Row drug offenders for probation violations any time they're caught returning to Skid Row.
The Times reports that Cooley's plan - effective as of Tuesday - makes 4th, 5th and 6th Streets between Central and Broadway a "stay away" zone for anyone already convicted of selling, buying or using drugs. This will give the 50 cops just added to the beat some teeth in the fight to break up the brawling Skid Row dope trade, as well as giving Cooley's 10 new Skid Row case-handlers something to focus on immediately ...
If it works for gang offenders, there's no reason it can't work for Skid Row. Stiffening penalties for re-offense will either graduate the worst repeat drug offenders to longer and longer sentences or push them away to less heavily-enforced markets.
The question is what the net effect will be on the great sucking vortex of drug use that keeps L.A.'s hardcore homeless community living and suffering on Skid Row.
It's a safe bet that savvy dealers will probably shuffle off to locations just outside the zone (presumably to be picked up on straight dealing charges, minus the re-offense penalty, when the cops can catch them).
But will this just shift the location of the Skid Row drug market to some other permanent location? Will any hard-core drug users caught for violating probation will take their extended jail sentences as a chance to clean up for good?
Paired with the jail-or-rehab choice now being offered by the cop-and-social-worker teams working Skid Row, this measure could start to give the city some traction on healing Skid Row.
